Government schools beat staff crunch to score well at Class XII exams

PANAJI: Of nine government higher secondary schools in Goa, seven have recorded a pass percentage of over 70% at the Class XII Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education exam.
Impressively, apart from having to cope with academically weak students, these schools have beaten odds such as a shortage of regular teachers to achieve the improved results.
With a pass percentage of 88.83%, Government Higher Secondary School, Canacona, recorded the best result among the state-run institutions. Government Higher Secondary School, Pernem, came second with an 85.88% pass percentage.
Sakhali Government Higher Secondary School principal Asha Naique said that though the overall 78% pass percentage of the school remained the same as that of 2018, the results of the science stream saw a 7% improvement.

The performance of the arts stream, however, saw a drop with nearly 20% fewer students clearing the exam. “Students of the arts stream were overconfident thinking that arts is an easy stream. But the geography and economics papers were challenging. But we cannot blame the students completely as we do not have regular staffers. Most of our teachers work on a temporary basis. We require trained and local teachers for better teaching facilities which will enable our students to perform better in the future,” said Naique.
Despite a lack of regular teachers, the Government Multipurpose Higher Secondary School, Margao, saw nearly 80% of its students clear the Class XII exam. “We get a lot of admission requests. We take in the students and try to improve them. We have teachers on a lecture basis. The government can improve this situation by employing regular teachers, which will help our students get better results,” said the school’s principal, Jose Gomes.
Principal of Government Higher Secondary School, Khandola, Daksha Gulavani, too, cited the lack of permanent staff as their biggest challenge. The institutions attained over 73% results despite these odds. “Most of our teachers are on a lecture basis. While our students must work harder, more permanent teachers will help us obtain better results. We always have a 70% plus pass percentage and we would like to reach a 100% soon,” Gulavani said.
At the Dr T B Cunha Government Higher Secondary School, Panaji, where 71% students cleared the Class XII exams, principal Rashmi Bandodker said the institutions goes beyond the regular facilities, including providing counsellors and scholarships to students to improve their performance. “Our teachers have put in extra efforts such as conducting remedial classes and providing students with question banks to study from. We also have a counsellor on campus to help students with personal and academic issues. We will continue working hard to obtain better results in the future as well. The rank holders are also given scholarships which motivates other students to study hard and obtain good results,” Bandodker said.